EPA's Jared Blumenfeld promises accountability

ENVIRONMENT

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Photo: Drew Altizer, Special To The Chronicle

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The San Francisco-based environmental organization ForestEthics held their 100 Million Trees Party at the Clift Hotel to support their Do Not Mail campaign to stop unwanted junk mail from reaching American mailboxes.
Jared Blumenfeld, Alex Nichols, Paul Pelosi Jr. less

The San Francisco-based environmental organization ForestEthics held their 100 Million Trees Party at the Clift Hotel to support their Do Not Mail campaign to stop unwanted junk mail from reaching American ... more

Photo: Drew Altizer, Special To The Chronicle

EPA's Jared Blumenfeld promises accountability

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The happy days are over for polluters and those who would exploit resources in downtrodden inner-city communities, Indian reservations and San Francisco Bay, the new regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency declared Tuesday.

Jared Blumenfeld, who took over the federal post this month, vowed during a news conference to make "revolutionary" changes that will end EPA invisibility and reconnect the agency to the citizens, whose health and livelihoods are at stake.

"There is a level of accountability that is missing when you go up to the federal government. I want to bring it back," said Blumenfeld, who served as San Francisco's environmental czar for nine years. "I want to put communities first. We haven't done that in a very long time."

The announcement is an indication that major changes are under way under President Obama with regard to the environment after eight years of less than strict regulation of industry under the Bush administration.

Blumenfeld, who made a name for himself in San Francisco for his work on the city's plastic-bag ban and mandatory composting laws, oversees federal environmental policy in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands and more than 140 tribal nations.

He pledged to help California regulate carbon emissions and find sustainable, economically viable solutions to global warming. He wants to increase funding to fight pollution in vulnerable communities such as West Oakland and Richmond, which are plagued by emissions from diesel trucks, freeway traffic and refineries. He said economic incentives must be sought for green development and to help small businesses adapt.

"Small business ... is the backbone of our economy," he said. "If you save them $100 on their energy bill, that can be the difference between staying in business and going out of business."

The federal money allocated for research and regulation of pollution in San Francisco Bay will increase, Blumenfeld said. Spots such as Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes have historically gotten the bulk of EPA funding, he said.

"It is the largest estuary in the West Coast of the Americas," he said. "The pressures on the bay remain enormous, but we don't spend the political time or money we need to deal with it."